The quest for increased productivity and improved efficiency certainly isn’t unique to the warehousing industry. It’s a Holy Grail every businesses strives for.The reasons are simple; productive and efficient businesses save time, save money and, on the whole, have happier customers. However, from connected clothes and smart glasses to workforce management solutions and 3D sensors, it’s the warehousing industry who are adopting new technology to empower rapid and revolutionary changes.
But how can technology make warehouses more efficient? How is the ‘Internet of Things’ changing the way warehouses operate? And how is the increased demand on personalisation affecting the industry?
We have addressed all these questions and more in a special webinar we’re holding with Optiscan and Zebra Technologies on Wednesday, October 18th. View the webinar here.
As a sneak peak, here are three innovations helping to revolutionise warehousing:
The Internet of Things
If we can have smart phones, smart watches and even smart homes, why not have a smart business? And in this case, why not have a smart warehouse? From radically changing the way the supply chain works to improving forklift efficiency by 10%, the Internet of Things is a big deal for warehousing, helping warehouse managers make better decisions and enabling more to be done with less.
Automation
From the use of drones for delivery and scanning to automated pick and pack systems, the rise of the robots in warehousing has been swift. Amazon alone now uses more than 30,000 of them across their facilities. And it’s not hard to see why. According to a recent report from the US, warehouses utilizing high levels of automation are 5 to 6 times more productive than when using manual processes.
Software
Workforce management solutions like Quinyx are integrating with traditional warehouse management systems to make both the warehouse, and the workforce, as efficient as possible.For example, whether it’s Black Friday sales or the launch of a new product, being able to forecast times of peak demand, and what exactly that demand will be, can hugely improve a warehouse’s efficiency.
And by connecting Quinyx’ forecasting module to the system that monitors incoming and outgoing packages, warehouses can staff more accurately based on metrics for their own systems. We have seen this in action with Yilport who forecast staffing based on the size of the ship coming into port. For example, a vessel ‘type 5’ means they need to schedule 7 crane drivers, 5 trucks drivers and so on.
If you’d like to find out more, this is just a taste of what’s in store during our free webinar.